High Performance Magazine

NEW! Now you can buy a digital copies of High Performance magazine. We’re starting from the beginning, and will be adding to the available issues as our time and your interest dictates. Go to the list of HP magazine issues and look for “Available as a digital download.” This offer is part of our effort to make this important art historical material available at a low cost. We hope to digitize more issues in the near future. No funding was received to support this project.

High Performance magazine was published quarterly from 1978 through 1997. Originally a magazine covering performance art, over time it gradually shifted its editorial focus from art that was formally adventurous to art that was socially and culturally adventurous. Back issues of the magazine can still be seen at better libraries around the world. The High Performance physical archive is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles.

About High Performance

High Performance was a quarterly arts magazine founded in 1978 and published through 1997. Its editorial mission was to provide support and a critical context for new, innovative and unrecognized work in the arts. Over the years High Performance was a leader in viewing the arts in the larger context of contemporary life, examining how the arts contribute in addressing social and cultural concerns, and also how those concerns impact the arts. In 1994 High Performance received the Alternative Press Award for Cultural Coverage from the Utne Reader, and was nominated three other times for the same award.

Linda Frye Burnham served as the magazine’s founding editor from 1978 through 1985. Steven Durland was the editor from 1986 through 1994. Durland and Burnham coedited the magazine 1995-1997. From 1983 to 1995, High Performance was published by Astro Artz (renamed 18th Street Arts Complex in 1990). In July of 1995, High Performance was acquired by Art in the Public Interest (API), a new organization formed by Burnham and Durland to research and develop information about how the arts can work in our everyday lives. API published five more issues, but rising costs and an inability to garner needed stabilization funding forced API to cease publication in 1997.